FIG. 1 illustrates three (3) enterprise datacenters 20 implementing a heterogeneous server environment consisting of four (4) homogenous high availability clusters 21. Each cluster 21 employs three (3) server nodes 22 and three (3) homogeneous high availability cluster managers (“HOCM”) 23 equally distributed across enterprise datacenters 20. Each manager 23 is installed on an associated server node 22, and includes an application programming interface module (“APIM”) 24 for receiving cluster management commands in accordance with a particular cluster management protocol. Examples of commercially available managers 23 include, but are not limited to, cluster managers sold by IBM, Microsoft, Veritas, Hewlett-Packard MCSG and Linux.
Enterprise datacenters 20 are located at different sites, physically or logically. As such, managers 23 of a cluster 21 are employed to protect services and data on the server nodes 22 within that cluster 21 across the different sites. In particular, managers 23 of a cluster 21 will cooperatively detect a problem with one of the server nodes 22 within that cluster 21 whereby resources (e.g., storage devices) associated with the problem server node 22 are transferred in accordance with one or more cluster management commands from the administrator to one of the remaining operating servers nodes 22 within that cluster 21. Furthermore, managers 23 of a cluster 21 will cooperatively facilitate one of the servers nodes 22 within that cluster 21 going offline for manual maintenance purposes whereby resources associated with the offline server node 22 are transferred in accordance with one or more cluster manager commands from the administrator to one of the remaining operating server nodes 22 within that cluster 21.
A drawback to exclusively implementing homogeneous high availability clusters 21 in this heterogeneous server environment is, in the case of a problem with one of the enterprise datacenters 20 (e.g., a natural disaster) or a need to perform a manual maintenance one of the enterprise datacenters 20, the administrator of the illustrated heterogeneous server environment has to manually manage each individual server node 22 on the subject datacenter 20 via its associated application programming interface module 24. This manual management of each individual server node 22 on the subject datacenter 20 can be difficult and time intensive as each application programming interface module 24 implements a different cluster management protocol for failover and high availability cluster administration.
For example, assuming datacenter 20(1) is active, datacenter 20(2) is inactive and for maintenance reasons the administrator has to perform a failover switch from datacenter 20(1) to datacenter 20(2), then the administrator must execute discrete cluster management commands in accordance with a distinct cluster management protocol for server node 22(1)(1) and server node 22(1)(2) within cluster 21(1), discrete cluster management commands in accordance with a distinct cluster management protocol for server node 22(2)(1) and server node 22(2)(2) within cluster. 21(2), discrete cluster management commands in accordance with a distinct cluster management protocol for server node 22(3)(1) and server node 22(3)(2) within cluster 21(3), and discrete cluster management commands in accordance with a distinct cluster management protocol for server node 22(4)(1) and server node 22(4)(2) within cluster 21(4). Further assuming an equal duration T for each set of commands and a sequential execution of each set of commands, the duration for the administrator to complete the failover switch from datacenter 20(1) to datacenter 20(2) is equal to 4×T. Clearly, this process can involve a significant degree of complexity and consumes a significant amount of time.
A challenge therefore for the computer industry is to facilitate a reduction in the complexity and time duration of a high availability/failover implementation within the heterogeneous server environment.